FF: Happy New Year!

I didn’t post what books I’d been reading last week in order to wish you happy holidays, but now I’m back among the pages with a pretty varied collection at hand.

Ogapoge Between Verne and McDevitt

For those of you just discovering this feature, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Midnight Thief, by Livia Blackburne.  Street urchin thieves, corruption everywhere, mysterious orphan with magical heritage, knights, a splash of romance…

Thunderbird by Jack McDevitt.  This sequel to 1996’s Ancient Shores takes you beyond the gates.

In Progress:

X by Sue Grafton.  (Audiobook)  Haven’t had as much time to listen as I’d like!

The Orpheus Descent by Tom Harper.  Two plot lines, one contemporary, one from the POV of a fortyish Plato relieve this from being a typical conspiracy theory thriller.

The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill.  I loved her tales of Jenny, the little black cat with the red scarf, and her friends.  Jim found me this reprint of one of the books in the series for Christmas.

Also:

I’ve known Jim Zimmerman, who provided the illustrations for this reprint of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, for well over twenty years.  His black and white interior illustrations evoke old woodcuts and are perfect for this book!  (The cover is neat, too!)